Hiiraan Online
Friday, September 25, 2015
MOGADISHU (HOL) ---The British oil firm Soma Oil & Gas has dismissed allegations by the United Nations Monitoring group which accused it of bribing Somali officials to secure contracts and negotiating agreements in Somalia.
The report which was submitted to the United Nations Security Council this year stated that the firm which was founded in early 2013 to explore oil in Somalia has made a payment of about $600,000 to the Somalia Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources under a capacity building agreement.
Speaking to the Voice of America Somali Service thursday, Bob Sheppard. the co-founder and CEO of Soma Oil & Gas has termed the allegations as ‘baseless’, assuring that his company was all set to cooperate with investigators to settle the issue.
“The allegations in the report are serious. Our firm considers its operations in Somalia as genuine which conforms to the international law.” Mr. Shepherd said in the interview Friday.
When asked why his firm had to pay such ‘large’ payments to the Somalia’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, he said that the money paid under the capacity building scenario is a ‘normal’ procedure often followed by similar companies to governments in control of countries in which they operate.
However, UN the experts said the company paid the ‘payoffs’ as part of efforts to protect and expand an energy exploration contract it signed with the ministry in 2013.
The allegations have also triggered an investigations by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) which searched the company’s London headquarters, however it hasn’t yet outlined the allegations against Soma Oil & Gas.
“That report is not worth commenting, however, the agreement was the best of its kind.” Mr. Shepherd said.